If someone said to me – “You have thirty seconds to tell me your favourite childhood book. Go…..” I would choose ‘The Tiger who came to tea,’ by Judith Kerr.

I still have my treasured copy – it’s a bit battered around the edges, but still in perfect reading order.

My dad would read it to me when he got home from work, before he tucked me into bed.

Some stories just stay with you and for me, this is definitely one of them.

I always thought of myself as Sophie and used to idly picture a tiger calling in for afternoon tea. We always had cats & a large ginger tom called Sam played the part of the tiger – not very well though.

The illustrations in the book are beautiful and ‘The Tiger who came to tea,’ has really stood the test of time.

I read the book to both of my children and it took me back to a happy time and place.

He liked to watch her, after he’d got undressed and made himself comfortable.

His mind concocted a thousand different scenarios where they were together.

Weirdly, they weren’t all sexual, no, some were quite innocent.

In the parental guidance ones, they had coffees, went for long walks and chatted about books and films.

But, here’s the thing…he didn’t even know her name.

He’d christened her Miss Yellow, as a tribute to Reservoir Dogs, although he knew there wasn’t a Mr Yellow in it.

The reason for the colour yellow was, when he watched her working, she seemed to favour it. A lot.

It was hard to explain what it was about her….she was around thirty, and had shoulder length, curly blonde hair that fell into her face. For some reason she never bothered to tie it up, and he liked to imagine weaving his fingers through it. Her lips were pink and glossy, and her huge eyes were obscured behind thick framed glasses that she continuously pushed back up her small nose.

Sometimes, when their eyes met, they got steamed up and he had a really hard time keeping a straight face.

She fascinated him, this petite, quiet woman and he had no idea why. He could only fantasise, and he did do so frequently, about the shape of her figure that she chose to hide under too many layers of baggy clothing.

Miss Yellow, on the other hand, knew everything, single thing about his figure….seen as he was stark, bollock naked.

It’s a perfect writing day in the North East of England; cold, dreary and wet – there’s no point going outside, so heating on and writing it is.

I’m currently working on the follow up to Feel The Need – Submit To The Need. It’s the story of Nick Darcy and Annie Carmichael, and it’s again set in Dublin. I recently acquired a pretty sexy cover for the novella that I’ve fallen in love with…